Loving Your Neighbor: An Asset-based Approach to Strong Neighborhoods

“Love your neighbor.” That’s what we are told. What does it look like from an Asset Based perspective? It begins as love always begins, by looking in the eyes of the other and saying “how lucky am I!” In this context it means seeing the gifts of the person before you, the answers they have for the housing crisis and then investing in those responses. Often we (churches) think we have great ideas. Often we do. The way to build sustainable responses is to join our social capital, our people power, our imaginations, with the gifts of those who have often been seen as the recipients of our “help” rather than investment in their good work. Love your neighbor? It seems like a really good idea.